Texas Congressman Releases Own Data on VA Wait Times

O'Rourke's survey was at odds with more optimistic stats from VA.

WASHINGTON -- Access to healthcare providers has grown dramatically with 7 million more appointments this year than last, the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs told Congress at a hearing on Wednesday. Yet a survey of veterans in one Texas district paints a much bleaker picture.

Robert McDonald, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, told a House Committee the average wait time for veterans seeking appointments with a mental health provider is 3 days, the wait for a primary care visit is 4 days and the average wait time for visiting a specialist is 5 days.

"I defy you to find another medical system in the country that has that," McDonald said.

O'Rourke said official VA reports for veterans in his district show appointment waiting times averaging 17 days, but a poll his office conducted shows dramatically longer waits.

Last summer, around the same time the VA scandal over wait times was discovered in Phoenix, O'Rourke's office, the 16th Congressional District in Texas, conducted an online survey to measure veterans' access to healthcare and the quality of that care. Results then showed veterans waited over 2 months for both primary care appointments and visits with mental health providers.

The survey was repeated this year and O'Rourke's office released those results last week.

Of the approximately, 20,208 veterans in the district, a random sample was chosen to participate. Of them, 1,108 veterans, a "meaningful portion of the veteran community," responded to the survey online and through an automated telephone service, according to the report from O'Rourke's office. Respondents answered questions about the quality of service the VA provides, access to care, and satisfaction with the VA facility. The report noted that the online surveys were protected from duplication and forwarding was prohibited.

The report found it took respondents on average:

77 days to visit with a primary or specialty care providers vs. 85 days in 2014

64 days to see a mental health provider vs. 71 days in 2014

While wait times for mental health have been shortened by about a week, for both mental heath and primary care visits, O'Rourke told MedPage Today, "The situation has not gotten better in any real way."

Nearly half of the veterans surveyed said that care at the El Paso VA Health Care System was "more or less the same" as last year, while about 33% said service had "greatly" or "somewhat improved."

"[T]hat translates into care deferred, care denied, suffering on the part of veterans and veteran suicides."

Other findings from the survey included:

34% of respondents were not able to gain access to a mental health provider "at all."

81% of respondents said timely access to care should be a priority "regardless if it's provided at the VA or by a provider in the community."

The congressman has sponsored a bill, the Ask Veterans Act. If enacted, the bill would require the VA to hire a non-government organization to conduct "scientifically verifiable surveys" in each region served by any VA medical facility. The bill has over 30 co-sponsors.

At the hearing, O'Rourke also mentioned a pilot program that he hopes will correct some of the current problems veterans have in accessing care.

Currently, a third of VA care in El Paso happens outside of the VA's centers. But what he continuously hears from veterans is that those who ultimately access mental health care at the VA are "bounced" back and forth between the community and the VA's own clinics. Having to repeat their problems to multiple providers over long stretches only exacerbates their trauma, he told MedPage Today.

What O'Rourke proposes is a program that would retain care for veterans with combat-related conditions such as post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and military sexual trauma within the VA's own hospitals and clinics. Then he said, the VA centers can "strategically and thoughtfully" direct care for more common conditions, such as a flu, cold or diabetes, within or outside of the VA in a well-coordinated manner.

The concept is common sense, he said, but it will require the VA to make changes including expanding its staff of mental health providers and other caregivers who deal with military sexual trauma and TBIs.

"That's going to mean paying them more and bonusing to get them in the door in the first place, and bonusing to retain them, once they're here working at the VA."

O'Rourke said his district currently has fewer mental health providers now than it did at the end of 2014. If the VA is serious about preventing veteran suicides, he said, "It's time to pony up."

In response to the discrepancy between the VA's data and O'Rourke's own, McDonald said he would gather both sets of information and "see if we can sort through it."

"Obviously we have work to do in El Paso. You and I and others have been working on it and we know that," he said to O'Rourke at the hearing.

O'Rourke said it was important to find a solution. "Whether it's our plan that we go to or your plan, let's try to sort it out."

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